Radiet Meles, a 35-year-old Eritrean national living in the UK illegally, has been convicted of raping a woman on a night out after previously being freed from prison rather than deported following an earlier sex attack conviction. A jury at Cardiff Crown Court found him guilty of rape and assault by beating following a five-day trial, raising questions about why he was allowed to remain in Newport, South Wales, without monitoring despite being a registered sex offender whom a judge had indicated was likely to face deportation.

Meles entered the UK hidden in a lorry via the Channel Tunnel in 2015 and later worked at a car wash and an Amazon distribution centre in Newport. In 2019 he was convicted of the attempted rape of an unconscious, heavily intoxicated woman at a house party and served a five-year sentence, with the sentencing judge stating a deportation order was likely. Instead, he returned to Newport unmonitored and was arrested in March this year over a fresh attack; he denied both charges, telling the court he had not had sexual intercourse with the victim, but was convicted and will be sentenced in November, facing a lengthy custodial term.